Wednesday, March 05, 2014

Look who I'm quoting

This is from Pat Buchanan:

"Information
Clearing House - "The
American Conservative"
-
With Vladimir Putin’s dispatch of Russian troops
into Crimea, our war hawks are breathing fire.
Russophobia is rampant and the op-ed pages are
ablaze here. Barack Obama should tune them out,
and reflect on how Cold War presidents dealt
with far graver clashes with Moscow.
When Red
Army tank divisions crushed the Hungarian
freedom fighters in 1956, killing 50,000,
Eisenhower did not lift a finger. When
Khrushchev built the Berlin Wall, JFK went to
Berlin and gave a speech. When Warsaw Pact
troops crushed the Prague Spring in 1968, LBJ
did nothing. When, Moscow ordered Gen. Wojciech
Jaruzelski to smash Solidarity, Ronald Reagan
refused to put Warsaw in default. These
presidents saw no vital U.S. interest imperiled
in these Soviet actions, however brutal. They
sensed that time was on our side in the Cold
War. And history has proven them right.What is
the U.S. vital interest in Crimea? Zero. From
Catherine the Great to Khrushchev, the peninsula
belonged to Russia. The people of Crimea are 60
percent ethnic Russians. And should Crimea vote
to secede from Ukraine, upon what moral ground
would we stand to deny them the right, when we
bombed Serbia for 78 days to bring about the
secession of Kosovo? Across Europe, nations have
been breaking apart since the end of the Cold
War. Out of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia came 24 nations. Scotland is voting
on secession this year. Catalonia may be next.

Pat Buchanan is a right-winger.

I'm noting him because he spoke out against the Iraq War.

Not after it was safe.

He spoke out before it started.

For that reason, if he's speaking out right now, we should listen.

You can agree with his thoughts or not, but at least weigh them for a moment.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014. Chaos and violence continue, Nouri's assault on
Anbar continues, his State of Law prepares to boycott Parliament on
Thursday, is Nouri waiting to serve warrants on his political rivals,
and so much more.

Alsumaria reports
that Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee announced that a private
plane was charted to bring Iraqi college students studying in the
Ukraine back to Iraq.

Ukraine? We've been noting events outside of the snapshots for the most part. We're bringing it into the snapshot today.

We're going to start with who Glenn Greenwald got into bed with this time, a billionaire who bought Glenn's ass and
mouth. When he broke the Ed Snowden story, we gave him credit for
that. And it would have been great to offer praise over and over. But
he's Glenn Greenwald and his circle jerk has always been pretty nasty.
Now it's apparently involved in attempting to overthrow governments.

Chris Floyd (CounterPunch) reports, "The Western intervention in Ukraine has now led the
region to the brink of war. Political opposition to government of
President Viktor Yanukovych — a corrupt and thuggish regime, but as with
so many corrupt and thuggish regimes one sees these days, a
democratically elected one — was funded in substantial part by
organizations of or affiliated with the U.S. government, such as the
National Endowment for Democracy (a longtime vehicle for
Washington-friendly coups), and USAID. It also received substantial
financial backing from Western oligarchs, such as billionaire Pierre
Omidyar, founder of eBay and sole bankroller of the new venue for
“adversarial” journalism, First Look, as Pandodaily reports." Marcy Wheeler of Empty Wheel
fame and now part of Omidyar's First Look was speculating on who in
the US might have been involved in the attempt to destabilize the
Ukraine and Mark Ames (PandoDaily) pursued that angle:Wheeler is partly correct. Pando has confirmed that the American
government – in the form of the US Agency for International Development
(USAID) – played a major role in funding opposition groups prior to the
revolution. Moreover, a large percentage of the rest of the funding to
those same groups came from a US billionaire who has previously worked
closely with US government agencies to further his own business
interests. This was by no means a US-backed “coup,” but clear evidence
shows that US investment was a force multiplier for many of the groups
involved in overthrowing Yanukovych.But that’s not the shocking part.What’s shocking is the name of the billionaire who co-invested with the US government (or as Wheeler put it: the “dark deep force” acting on behalf of “Pax Americana”).Step out of the shadows…. Wheeler’s boss, Pierre Omidyar.

Yes, in the annals of independent media, this might be the strangest
twist ever: According to financial disclosures and reports seen by
Pando, the founder and publisher of Glenn Greenwald’s government-bashing
blog,“The Intercept,” co-invested with the US government to help fund
regime change in Ukraine.

Andrea Sears: This is Left Voices for Monday, March 3, 2014. I'm
Andrea Sears. Tonight [. . .] is the crisis in the Ukraine a popular
uprising or an orchestrated coup d'etat? Russian forces have virtually
occupied the Crimean peninsula without firing a shot and pro-Russian
demonstrators have taken over the regional government building in the
city of Donetsk in the eastern Ukraine. Secretary of State John Kerry
is threatening to cast Russia out of the G8 and the newly installed
government of Kiev is calling on NATO for assistance. From the protests
in Kiev to the ouster of former Prime Minister Yanukovych to the
military stand-off, the press is buzzing with depictions of corruption
overthrown, massing troops and reported threats. In the US, Russia is
being condemned on all sides. Without acknowledging any irony, [US
Secretary of State] John Kerry, who voted for the invasion of Iraq,
accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "invading another country on
a completely trumped-up pretext," calling it an incredible act of
aggression. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina has called the Obama administration weak and indecisive and
urged the President to do more than deliver empty threats to thugs and
dictators. And Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida is calling
Russia an enemy of the United States. At the height of the civil unrest
in Kiev there were scattered reports that far right elements were
playing a major role in the protests but there's been little follow up.
Francis Boyles is a professor of law at the University of Illinois
College of Law and author of several books including Foundations of
World Order. Boyles says an audio tape that has appeared on YouTube --
allegedly a recording of a conversation between Assistant Secretary of
State Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, the US Ambassador to the
Ukraine tells part of the story that's been missing. Francis A. Boyle: It's clear what happened was that the United States
government orchestrated a neo-Nazi coup d'etat in Kiev. And the people
in power there now are fascists, neo-nazis, anti-Semites. You have at
least four people from Svoboda in the government including one in charge
of the security policies and another from right sector that's basically
neo-Nazi skinheads. So we launched a coup d'etat, put these people in
power in Kiev and now it appears that Secretary of State Kerry is going
over there to consolidate them in power and demonstrate the support of
the US. UK Foreign Minister [William] Hague was just there. It looks
like we've mobilized NATO to their defense at least in terms of
statements -- so far not troops, but we'll have to see what happens, how
those further developments -- I don't know. But one could certainly
understand why Russia is concerned about us putting neo-Nazis in power
in Ukraine and overthrowing a democratically elected government which we
did do.Andrea Sears: How much of this is the power play over the tension
between Russia and the European Union and the United States over the
eastern expansion of NATO into former Soviet states. Has this been a
major part of the conflict?Francis A. Boyle: Yes, of course, that's what this is really all
about. As you know, Soviet President Gorbachev agreed with President
Bush Sr. that, if he went along with the reunification of Germany that
NATO borders would not move to the east. Unfortunately, he was so naive
as to note get that written in a treaty and only accepted oral
assurances. So the moment Clinton came to power, NATO was moved to the
east right up to the borders of Russia and there two prizes left were
Georgia and Ukraine. In fact, Ukraine under the previous administration
before Yanukovych signed a partnership for peace agreement with NATO
and NATO membership was -- is the next step. The European Union, this
so-called association agreement, had security provisions in there which
would have required cooperation with NATO. And I regret to say today
the European Union pretty much functions as a stalking horse and
catch-all for NATO. So this is all about extending NATO into Ukraine
itself.

It is therefore rather ironic that the US, which led the attack in
Iraq, is warning Russia that it is considering economic and diplomatic
options that will isolate Russia for “being on the wrong side of
history.” Around 112,017 - 122,438 civilian deaths were recorded by Iraq Body Count
(IBC) between 20 March 2003 and 14 March 2013 during the Iraq War.
Although the conflict came to an end in 2011, the number of deaths is
constantly increasing due to the ongoing insurgency the invasion
wrought. What’s worse, the grave mistake was never acknowledged by the then
or current governments of the Western countries involved in the false
cause. So, is it not an act of sheer hypocrisy when such unapologetic
invaders accuse another country of “violating international law” for
committing the same mistake after a decade? When Russia decided to attack Ukraine on Saturday, President Barack Obama announced that the U.S. would consider the aforementioned action against Russia. Secretary of State John Kerry also condemned Russia’s “act of aggression over phony pretexts” in Ukraine.

The irony and hypocrisy of both of these statements is just
unmistakable, especially when the White House – despite several appeals
from the United Nations – has failed to halt its illegal drone program in Afghanistan, Yemen and several parts of Pakistan.

Chris Marsden (WSWS) offers:Kerry and Obama have spent the past days consolidating a strategic
alliance of imperialist and regional powers against Moscow—insisting
above all that the European powers, led by Germany, take a hard line on
Ukraine and on economic sanctions. In addition, Washington has
repeatedly met with the leaders of Georgia and Moldova, encouraging both
to make a high profile stand against Russia to encourage others to do
the same.On February 26, Kerry spoke to the US-Georgia Strategic
Partnership Commission, announcing additional US assistance “to help
support Georgia’s European and Euro-Atlantic vision,” while denouncing
Russia’s continued military presence in the breakaway Georgian
territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Of course there’s also the matter of the US role — overt
and covert — in helping to fund and organize the mobs who ousted the
elected government of Ukraine. That too was a violation of international
law. For years now, the US has, through its National Endowment for
Democracy, US AID, and other government and quasi-government bodies,
been funneling money to anti-government groups in Ukraine (as it did
also in Egypt and Russia itself, and as it is doing now in Venezuela and
other countries whose leaders it opposes). The leaked tape of the U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria
Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt discussing how to
staff the new government of Ukraine after the anticipated collapse of
the elected government shows how deeply the US was involved in the
undermining of the government of Ukraine. Again, this interference in
another country’s political system is a horrendous violation of
international law.

The hospital has been repeatedly shelled, the latest attack on the night of 9th - 10th February. Al-Maliki’s militia have been filmed dragging the body of a young man behind a car and setting bodies alight.Nobel Peace Laureate Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron’s regimes
are as culpable for their continuing support and facilitating of
al-Maliki’s crimes against humanity as were Bush and Blair in the lies
that delivered Iraq’s ongoing death and destruction.

The oppressive treatment reserved to the Sunni minority by the Shia
majority government under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has opened the
door to al-Qaeda's ex- affiliate, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS), to gain influence and entrench itself to the point that the
black flag of al Qaeda has been raised over Fallujah, a city for which
the U.S. Marines fought hard and shed much blood in 2004.

Poor Philippe, scared of his own shadwo, convinced al Qaeda's
overrunning Iraq and thug Nouri is fighting a righteous battle. Worship
of government lies is a dangerous religious mind-set all its own.

Of the 18 provinces in Iraq, 12 are in
open conflict with Baghdad, including the three Kurdish ones. All are -- or
hope to be soon -- oil or gas producers. With 93 percent of Iraq's revenue
derived from hydrocarbon sales, the country could pay a high price if relations
deteriorate further.
Fraught relations between Baghdad and its provinces is, at
least in part, a result of the U.S. occupation -- and of Washington's inability
to decide whether to support a decentralized federal state or try to rebuild a
strong center so that Iraq would not disintegrate. U.S. advisers favored the
impossible: federalism, decentralization, Kurdish autonomy, but also a strong
central government. Instead, the Kurds in 2005 forced through a constitution
that gave their region considerable autonomy and severely restricted Baghdad's
authority. The Kurds were elated, but American fears of a break-up of the
country increased. As a result, the United States welcomed Maliki's growing
assertiveness, backed him again after the 2010 elections, and ignored his
growing authoritarianism. Iraqi provincial officials, on the other hand, grew
resentful of Baghdad's heavy-handedness and increasingly envious of Kurdish
autonomy.

If you're not getting how right she is and how wrong Philippe is, NINA reports:

The Rapporteur of the House of Representatives, Mohammed al-Khalidi
said: "The presidency of the parliament has received a formal letter
from the Basra Governorate Council, calling to transfer of the
governorate to province."He told the National Iraqi News Agency /
NINA / "The Council has received a letter addressed to the council and
the Council of Ministers and signed by a number of members of the
provincial council in Basra, demanding to transfer Basra to a province
."

Alsumaria notes
that Ayad Allawi's coalition issued a statement today declaring that
the indiscriminate shelling on the people of Anbar needed to cease
immediately and that the government needed to enter into negotiations
with the peaceful protesters.

Ayad Allawi headed the coalition that beat Nouri al-Maliki in the 2010
elections. Allawi should be prime minister. But the White House
disrespected the Iraqi voters and democracy and schemed to subvert the
will of the people in order for thug Nouri to get a second term as prime
minister.

In February, the last time the non-Iraqi press paid serious attention to
the protests, the press whored for Nouri and pretended he was
responding to the demands. He got his headlines, AFP, AP and everyone
else refused to cover the protests and Nouri never met one damn demand
of the protesters.

- End of Sectarian Shia rule
- the re-writing of the Iraqi constitution (drafted by the Americans and Iranians)
- the end to arbitrary killings and detention, rape and torture of all detainees on basis of sect alone and their release
- the end of discriminatory policies in employment, education, etc based on sect
- the provision of government services to all
- the end of corruption
- no division between Shias and Sunnis, a one Islam for all Iraqi Muslims and a one Iraq for all Iraqis.

Nouri lied and pretended he would meet the demands of the protesters. He lies so very often. NINA reports:al-Anbar Provincial Council accused on Sunday 2 March the military
forces of not being serious in resolving the current crisis and end the
military operations in the province.Vice Chairman of the Council
Faleh al-Issawi said in a statement to the National Iraqi News Agency /
NINA / that the army is not serious in ending the crisis and resolving
the situation and ending the military operations in spite of the
initiatives launched by the provincial council and the elders and
notables.Al-Issawi said that there are many initiatives launched
by the local government of the council and the governor and tribal
leaders and elders of Anbar, which included the withdrawal of military
units and end the armed manifestations in addition to stop the random
shelling , but the government does not listen to the initiatives and it
is not serious in ending the crisis of the province.

MP, of the State of Law Coalition, Sadiq al-Labban said that his
coalition is boycotting the meetings of the Council of Representatives,
and will not attend the meeting of the Council to discuss Anbar crisis,
on Thursday . "He told the National Iraqi News Agency / NINA /:
"The issue of the Anbar is a military issue , not a political ,
therefore it cannot be discussed in the House of Representatives , on
the grounds that the armed forces are fighting the terrorists of ISIS ,
backed by Anbar tribes ."

Not only is there no military solution, Nouri's assault on ANBAR has
only revealed how weak he truly is as one city or town after another has
been lost to him.

AMYGOODMAN:We turn now to Iraq. A new report by Truthout has revealed doctors, residents and NGO
workers in the city of Fallujah are accusing the Iraqi government of
war crimes and crimes against humanity in its ongoing attack against the
city. According to one account, at least 109 civilians have been killed
and 632 wounded since January, when Iraqi government forces began
shelling Fallujah in its fight against militants.For more on this, we’re joined by Dahr Jamail, staff reporter at Truthout. He’s joining us from Doha, Qatar.Dahr, tell us what you found.DAHRJAMAIL:
By phoning in to several doctors in Fallujah—well, one of them, in
fact, who is—had to flee because her home was being shelled, so she had
to take her family and leave—but after speaking with all three of them, I
found, you know, the really shocking numbers that you just discussed as
far as the total numbers of dead and wounded. But in addition to that,
they’re all claiming, from different parts of the city, that it’s really
indiscriminate firing, that the military, the Iraqi military, that they
all are referring to as Maliki—as in Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri
al-Maliki’s military—that Maliki’s army has been shelling the city
indiscriminately, that they aren’t—they aren’t seeing any official
targets or anything military for them to target, that the main hospital,
Fallujah General Hospital, has been shelled, that we have a situation
where apparently several mosques have been shelled, and unknown numbers
of civilian homes have also been shelled. And in addition to the numbers
that you just spoke of, we—according to Dr. Ahmed Shami, the head
of—the chief of resident doctors at Fallujah General Hospital, there’s
been at least 10 children killed, 40 wounded, and in addition to that,
five women killed and at least 35 wounded. And those statistics are now a
few days out of date, and the shelling has continued since I wrote this
report.

Let's go back to the topic of violence and start with the attack everyone was covering.

Yang Yi (Xinhua) reports, "Iraqi security forces freed many hostages held by
suicide bombers who stormed the city council of Samarra city in Iraq's
Salahudin province earlier on Tuesday, leaving five people killed and 48
wounded, a provincial police source said." Ghazwan Hassan, Ahmed Rasheed, Ned Parker and Angus MacSwan (Reuters) note the
rebels held the council and court house "for four hours," that 4 police
officers were killed as well as 3 civilians -- shot by Nouri's forces
who "opened fire to retake the site." Mahmud Saleh (AFP) adds that "Two bombers dressed in police uniforms shot dead a policeman
and took control of the council headquarters with employees inside, a
police lieutenant colonel said." Alsumaria counts 6 suicide bombers.

QUESTION: Okay. Tensions between the Kurdistan Regional
Government and Baghdad have escalated over the past week, ever since the
Baghdad government formally suspended the budget, the 2014 budget of
the Kurdistan region.MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.QUESTION: What’s your position on the suspension of the KRG’s budget?MS. PSAKI: Well, we urge Iraq’s Council of Ministers, the
Iraqi parliament, and Iraq’s regional, sub-regional governments to
address the outstanding issues that remain as quickly as possible so
that the national budget can move forward to a vote. While this is
essentially an internal Iraqi matter, U.S. officials are engaged as
appropriate with senior Iraqi leaders to support efforts to resolve
differences through direct dialogue and the political process,
consistent with the Iraqi constitution. Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State Brett McGurk arrived in Iraq on Monday, and he will meet with
officials in Baghdad and Erbil to address ongoing issues and urge all
sides to reach a swift resolution.QUESTION: You don’t have anything specific about the
suspension of the budget? Because Barzani, the president of the
Kurdistan region, has called that a declaration of war against our
people.

MS. PSAKI: I think I just conveyed to you what our position
is. Obviously, Deputy Assistant Secretary Brett McGurk is on the ground.
We of course believe that these issues should be addressed as quickly
as possible.

The worthless State Dept ignores the human rights abuses but whores for oil. We have little room here but Alsumaria is reporting
that another arrest warrant has been issued against Vice President
Tareq al-Hashemi -- this one calling him an enemy of the state. We're
bringing it up because it's thought that this is a series of warrants
and that one not yet issued, but which may be issued, is for Moqtada
al-Sadr, cleric and movement leader.

I'm not accusing Moqtada al-Sadr of any crimes. I don't believe Tareq
is guilty of any. But an Iraqi MP e-mailed about this story and the
rumors in Parliament that Moqtada fled to Iran because he was tipped off
that the Nouri had ordered the criminal court to prepare a warrant for
him.

Cleric and movement Moqtada al-Sadr announced his political retirement February 15th. February 18th, he delivered a speech -- CounterPunch posted the speech in full -- emphasizing his decision. February 26th, NINA noted the rumors that Moqtada left Iraq today, "The sources noted in a press statement that Mr. Muqtada al-Sadr left
today's afternoon the city of Najaf heading to the Islamic Republic of
Iran in order to complete his religious studies and stay away from the
political scene as he officially announced for all Iraqis."

Again, I'm not accusing Moqtada of crimes. I do accuse Nouri of using
the courts to go after his political rivals. And I'm noting this due to
an e-mail from an Iraqi MP who believes that the warrant against Tareq
(who's already been illegally convicted in Iraq and sentenced to the
death penalty four or five times now) is part of a series of warrants
Nouri has had the Iraqi courts prepare against his rivals.